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We guarantee that nothing you encounter during our dive into the waters of rhetoric will be as confusing as this ridiculous-looking fish. (Source)
You've probably heard more than one rhetorical question in your life.
Song lyrics are full of them. How can we be lovers if we can't be friends? What's love got to do with it? How do I live without you? Who's zoomin who?
Sure, you can scream out the answers alone in your car—"Love has everything to do with it, Tina!"—but the thing is that Ms. Turner wasn't expecting an answer from you. She was posing a rhetorical question for dramatic effect (and the stuff of lasting lyrical legacy). Rhetorical Q's are meant to elicit a reaction, not an actual answer.
In the last unit, we introduced you to the concept of rhetoric—that is, persuasive speaking. We introduced you to some of the highlights in the history of rhetoric, with the promise that soon we'd take a nice, deep dive into some specific rhetorical techniques.
Well, it's time to bust out your SCUBA gear, because we're about to take that deep dive.
Because so much of modern rhetoric is based off of the ideas those Ancient Greek and Roman rhetoricians had, you're going to encounter a whole lot of Greek terms, like enthymeme and ethos.
But it's not super important that you memorize these Greek terms…even though there's pretty much nothing that sounds fancier than dropping a little Ancient Greek into everyday conversation.
What is important is understanding their underlying concepts. Luckily, there are a ton of examples from recent history—these rhetorical concepts have had some serious staying power. That's why you'll hear just as much about Martin Luther King and Daniel Day-Lewis as you will about Aristotle and Cicero.
One technique we won't spend any more time on is rhetorical questions. Does that bother you? Are you sad about that?
(We're not actually interested in your answers. You just got rhetorical question-ed.)
Summary
Summary
Rhetoric consists of techniques that can help you argue effectively.
The goal of a deliberative argument is consensus.
Knowing how to set a goal and seduce an audience can help you reach the consensus you're going for.
Masters of rhetoric know to choose the right tense (as in past, present, and future) to strengthen their argument.
Three of the most powerful persuasive tools are ethos, logos, and pathos.
Ethos refers to argument by character and has to do with the author of an argument.
Logos refers to argument by logic and has to do with the text of an argument.
Pathos refers to argument by emotion and has to do with the audience of an argument.
Objectives
Objectives
recognize the goal of a persuasive, deliberative argument.
identify several ways of seducing an audience (rhetorically, that is).
identify the right tense based on the goal of a persuasive argument.
recognize the terms ethos, logos, and pathos.
identify several rhetorical techniques that fall under the broad categories of ethos, logos, and pathos.
consider a speech's rhetoric and why the speaker used certain techniques.
Study Questions
Study Questions
What is the goal of a persuasive argument?
What are the most effective rhetorical techniques to reaching that goal?
How can a speaker use tense to different rhetorical effect?
In what situations might a speaker choose ethos, logos, or pathos as her primary argument style?
What are some of the "power tools" of the three types of argument (ethos, logos, and pathos)?
How can a speaker avoid using "empty rhetoric"?
What does fitting in have to do with persuading an audience?
What emotions cause an audience to take action?
What emotions can calm an audience down?
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